Everyone loves color. There’s something about bright blooms that bring a smile to your face and make your landscape that much more enjoyable.
That vibrant visual appeal you see in landscapes you admire at vacation resorts or botanical gardens gives you a warm, welcoming feeling. They create different levels of interest, texture, and vivid hues that you can’t resist.
When looking at your Illinois home landscape, you might be wondering how you can create a similar look in your yard. You just might not be sure how to do it.
That’s OK. We can help. Creating an eye-catching colorful landscape that pops throughout the year takes a well-thought-out plan.
6 Ways to Get Year-Round Color in Your Landscape
Your goal of having a landscape that bursts with blooms and bright hues year-round in Illinois may be simpler than you think.
All you need is some preparation, a bit of guidance, and a little help from Mother Nature.
Use these ideas to get the best all-season landscaping color you can get from Chicago-friendly plants.
1. Seasonal Annuals
Seasonal annuals add an amazing wow factor to any landscape when they are installed properly.
The color scheme you choose is vital to the visual look you want. Choosing a series of colors is a great idea, but you want to ensure they don’t clash. Having a landscape designer with an eye for design and choosing complementing colors is key to a colorful landscape.
2. Unique Perennials, Shrubs & Trees
Yes, annuals may steal the color show, but when you’re planning for year-round color in your landscape you have to think about all the plants, including those that you may not think of first when it comes to color.
Many perennials offer seasonal blooms, as well as great texture and leaf color, that can provide a backdrop to brighten your annual impact.
Shrubs and trees provide similar features. On top of that, consider their fall colors. Thinking out the placement of your perennials, shrubs, and trees when planting ensures their color changes throughout the year coordinate with the rest of your landscape and shine at the right times.
3. Container Gardening
Adding containers is another great way to incorporate strategic color and interest throughout your landscape.
You want to place these pots and urns in special places where they’ll offer the most impact. Some ideas include near your front porch or front gate or in prominent places around your backyard entertainment areas.
You also want to make sure they aren’t messy looking. Choose plants that spill, fill, and thrill, which means something that drapes, something that adds texture to the center, and something tall that is vertical and eye-catching.
Choosing the right types of containers can also be a part of your color plan. Amazing urns that coordinate with your home or even sculptures that have room to plant add additional impact for an overall gorgeous space that offers all-season landscaping.
4. Spacing & Plant Location
To get that colorful landscape you crave, you need to have generous groups of color. Spacing annuals about here and there, for instance, doesn’t have the impact that you’re seeking. Scattered flowers can go by unnoticed, unfortunately. It can even cause a more cluttered look.
But clustering those annuals in big sections can dramatically brighten your yard and give you the professional colorful landscape you crave.
Just as the number of plants is important, so is their location. Place small, brightly colored annuals near entryways, along your front walkway, or near high-traffic areas like your patio for maximum curb appeal and interest. This grabs your attention by putting color in the right places.
5. Strategic Bloom Timing
When choosing plants for your Greater Chicago landscape, you may know they have great blooms, but you also need to think about the timing of those flowers.
A landscape designer with strong landscape design experience and extensive plant knowledge can ensure there is something colorful and blooming throughout the year.
This extra attention to detail ensures there are no holes in your landscape where nothing is blooming or the landscape looks sparse or barren. A strategic plan that keeps this in mind can result in year-round color in the landscape.
6. Bulbs
Planting bulbs in fall ensures that colors pop in early spring when you’re desperate for brilliant blooms after months of snow and ice.
Don’t neglect planting bulbs in fall when you’re least likely to be thinking about landscape color to ensure you get an early start to the colorful landscape you desire.
All-Season Landscaping That’s One of a Kind
Sure, you can put some color in your landscape and call it a day.
But you want something more extraordinary than that. You want year-round color in your landscape that gives you a reason to spend time outdoors, adding that powerful color punch that surprises and delights.
To achieve this look that wows, you need to hire a landscape designer that knows Greater Chicago landscapes and all of the plant options that can not only thrive in local conditions, but that also offer the best color for the job.
Doing this can ensure you witness what the right plants smartly placed can do to bring your entire yard to life.
Still wondering how you can get better color in your landscape or which plants can add the most impact? Let KD Landscape help. We have years of experience working with a multitude of plants and know which ones have proven to add beautiful blooms and vivid vistas in home landscapes.
Ready to see how KD Landscape can transform your suburban Chicago estate with colorful plants? We’d love to share our design and installation expertise with you. Get started today with a free consultation. Together, we can prepare a design that you will love.
Image Source: Japanese Maple, Daffodil
